The present invention relates to a method and a telephone for producing a ringing tone for the telephone, wherein the ringing tone is stored in a memory of the telephone, as a response to an incoming call a signal representing the ringing tone is retrieved from the memory, the ringing tone is generated, and the ringing tone is reproduced by means of sound reproduction means of the telephone. The invention relates to a ringing tone of ordinary telephones and a ringing tone of different types of mobile stations.
Mobile phones have originally had ringing tones similar to ordinary telephones, which have mainly resembled the ringing of a clock. When a mobile phone of a specific make and model had one fixed ringing tone problematic situations occurred, when two users in the same space had the same type of mobile phone and, thus, the same kind of ringing tone, in which case, it was confusing as to whose phone was actually ringing. This problem has been solved by making the ringing tone dependent on either the user""s own telephone number or the telephone number of a caller. However, the ringing tones produced on the basis of two almost identical telephone numbers may sound so much alike, that it is difficult to separate them from each other. In addition, by producing a ringing tone on the basis of a telephone number, ringing sound effects with different tones are mainly achieved, however, tones produced only on this basis may even annoy the user, i.e., the user is not allowed to select a ringing tone to his/her liking.
This problem has been solved further as mobile phones have become more advanced. Currently, mobile phones normally have several pre-stored ringing tones from amongst which the user may select the preferred ringing tone. In addition to ordinary ringing tones, melodies from familiar pieces of music have been implemented as ringing tones by means of modern technology, and they are also amongst the ringing tones to choose from. With the enormous increase in the use of mobile phones, it has turned out that even as many as ten different ringing tones in a mobile phone are not enough to solve the problem of several mobile phone users thinking that it is their phone ringing, when someone else""s phone is ringing. In addition, it may be that the user does not like any of the pre-stored ringing tones. Ordinary telephones, which have a limited number of different types of ringing tones, often present a similar problem.
The situation has been improved by solutions for programming ring tones with the user interface of the telephone or other communication device. One solution has been shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,766 in which the user inputs different parameters defining a pulse formed ring tone sequence, such as frequency, pulse length, number of pulses in a group, length of interval between pulses, number of pulse groups etc. These parameters are input by the user as numbers. Another solution has been described in publication WO 92/03891, in which the ring tone of a pager can be programmed by lighting certain pixels of a matrix display. The location of a pixel vertically corresponds to a certain pitch (E, F, G, A, H, C, D) and the duration of a tone is determined by the amount of pixels in sequence horizontally. The drawback of this solution is that it is difficult for the user to differentiate the pitches since a pixel is very small on a matrix display and it is difficult to differentiate between to neighboring pitches. Also for adjusting the duration the user needs to input several pixels, which takes time. Another similar solution has been disclosed in publication EP 684 591 A1 in which a ring tone can be programmed on the display of a pager by defining pitches with two-letter definitions (DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, TI) and the duration of a tone by the amount of similar definitions in sequence. The drawback of this solution as well is that for adjusting the duration the user needs to input several letters, which takes time and also consumes space on the display and makes it difficult to ensure that the right melody has been input.
The objective of the present invention is to avoid at least some of the aforementioned problems. This is possible by means of a telephone, which has means for inputting ringing tones as notes, i.e. as characters, whereby each character defines both pitch and duration of a tone. In this context, a telephone means an ordinary telephone, a mobile phone and some other type of mobile station, which comprises means for executing outgoing calls and for receiving incoming calls. The user can preferably produce, by means of a user interface, tones of the desired pitch and duration by means of notes and rests, the desired melody being produced by the sequence formed of them. The tunes and the melody can preferably be produced by means of a user interface, which comprises a display, and wherein a stave is produced for producing the melody, whereon the desired melody can be written by means of the user interface, and stored as the ringing tone of the telephone (mobile station). Tones, i.e., notes and rests, can be selected, e.g., from a note menu, and they can be placed in the desired place on the stave displayed on the display. As an alternative to the retrieving of a note from the menu, the tones can be produced through a keyboard of the mobile station, e.g., so that by pressing a specific key or by pressing two or more keys as a combination, a tone of a specific pitch is produced, and the duration of the tone is proportional to the duration of the press.
A telephone according to the present invention is characterised in that it comprises means for inputting information defining the ringing tone as characters, each character defining both pitch and duration of a tone. Correspondingly, a method according to the present invention is characterised in that information defining the ringing tone is input as characters, each character defining both pitch and duration of a tone and stored in the telephone""s memory.